The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-10-15
THE MARRIED scoLp.
Women Who Wantonfy Wreck the Happ
piness Of Their Families

Women Who wantoniy wreck the Happs-
piness Of Their Families
-F'yi fly. unknit that threatening. unkind brow;
It blots thy beauty as frosts bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame whiriwinds shake their
heads,
And in nc sense is meet or amiable."
Shdkespere.
This old-time philosophy. which the
famous poet used in his flaming Of
the Shrew." is as apt for our day as for
the century in which it was written.
Indeed. many a sorrowing husband re-
cognizes the picture while despairing
of finding cure, as did Petruchio. No
home can supply the true meaning OF
the word. No husband can fulfill the
promise of his manhood who owns
scold for wife. A man who is always
watching the skies for the signs of
tempest is in no condition to do effec-
tive service of any sort Such man
has his manners spoiled for he can
never seem at easel, his business
capacity weakened and his peace Of
mind destroyed.
There are few women who could be
so heartless as to deliberately ruin a
husband in this way. And it is gen.
orally accomplished through blindness
to facts. The husband gives up his
strength and resistance to wrongs grad
ually, until, before an observing COM
munity, he is rendered slave. You
can see the signs of this slavery in his
furtive glances, in the hopeless ex-
preston he wears, in his very steps,
AS there are signs that reveal the VIC
tim Of scold, SO there are marks up
on the face of scold that betray her
nature. Sometimes in viewing such a
face you find yourself tracing cause
from effect, wondering if the regular
features were not once beautiful; Won
dering also what was the initiative
step toward being scold.
There was such step, and this is
why this article is written-to lift a
warning voice to those who may be
about to take ito save, if possible,
some young wife, who, using her
woman's power and privilege Alright.
may become queen in her realm. A
thoughtless habit may hold the seeds
of gigantic mischief in the direction of
becoming scold. A little indulgence
in peevishness. small selfish exaction
of another's time or attention, may
hold the germ which shall at last de-
spoil the home. Gradually the attrac-
tive face will change, the beautiful
,,,o,,+I ,,,;u loao,,,a J;etorfo1 tho nv
preston of trust will give way to one
of suspicion, and the husband, who was
won by gentleness and sweetness, is
bewildered at the truth that is forced
upon his senses. He perhaps doubts
those senses at first, but years of suffer-
ing convince him that he has cast his
| lot with scold.
We need among our women the
adaptability to the changing cir
cumstances of life, for such changes
are liable to come to all. The old
fashioned words of more than one
mother to her daughter, "Make the
very best of every thing" are like
"apples of gold in pictures of silver"
| in their worth and wisdom, and follow
| ing their spirit, many wife has proved
a treasure, and many home little
Heaven.
We have all heard the story which
one of our modern poets has empha-
sized and adorned by his verse, of a
man who laid wager with regard to
his wife's equable temper, and the
other man. whose experience, it would
be judged, had been of different sort
from that of his friend, told him that il
she were tried with crooked wood her
even temper would give way to fault
finding. The wager being laid, the
owner Of the pleasant wife purchased a
load of gnarled branches, and awaited,
not without misgivings. the result
Days and weeks passed, and still the
home fires burned undimned, and the
home tables we're loaded with the good
things from housewifely arts At last
the wood was nearly gone, and when
the husband spoke of getting some
more the wife urged: '.Do get some
more crooked sticks; they lie SO nicely
around the pot"
It is the power of making the best
| of things which this illustrates that
will insure woman against becoming
a scold, and make her a help and a
blessing to the world. Christian al
| Work.